US to present intelligence data on plane crash

Published: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 11:44 a.m. CST

Caption

(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A Malaysian air crash investigator takes pictures of wreckage at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. A team of Malaysian investigators visited the site along with members of the OSCE mission in Ukraine for the first time since the air crash last week.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the intelligence community will have some additional data to present later in the day. No additional details about what would be released were available.

Earnest said the U.S. welcomed the news that most of the remains of the 298 killed have been handed over to authorities and the black boxes were transferred to Dutch and Malaysian authorities.

But he said the U.S. still hasn't seen the level of cooperation from Russia and pro-Russian separatists that it wants to see. He said international investigators led by the Dutch still need full and immediate access to the crash site.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama visited the Netherlands Embassy in Washington and signed a condolence book for those who were lost. He said he wanted to "assure the Dutch people that we will work with them to make sure that loved ones are recovered, that a proper investigation is conducted and that ultimately justice is done."

Out of the 298 passengers and crew killed on the flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia, the Netherlands was the hardest hit nation, losing 193 citizens.